Baptist Church
432 Riversdale Road HAWTHORN EAST, BOROONDARA CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is Significant
The first and second Baptist Churches of 1903-4 and 1939-40 reflect the growth of the Baptist church in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and the association of the church with the growing suburban communities around central Melbourne. Both churches are the work of established architects and in scale and design reflect the relatively modest capacity of the church at the time. They both pursue a Gothic theme, which in the case of the earlier building is directly related to the traditional English parish church and in the latter develops as a modernised interpretation.
The churches are significant to the extent of their external fabric and their open landscaped setting. The principal facades to Riversdale Road and Wills Street are of particular significance.
How is it Significant
The Camberwell Baptist Church is historically, aesthetically and socially significant to the City of Boroondara.
Why is it Significant
The Baptist Church complex is of historical significance in reflecting the growth of the church in the local areas as related to the two early phases of growth in suburban development. Both the current and former churches are of aesthetic and architectural significance in a local context as examples of the relatively restrained designs adopted by the Baptists in their later church buildings. The second church in particular compares well to contemporary examples in the Boroondara area and further afield.
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Baptist Church - Physical Conditions
First Church (now Baptist Church Hall), 1903-4
Elphinstone observes that this building was 'designed in the manner of simple, English Gothic parish churches, with high gabled roof'. A gabled porch fronts the west (Wills Street). Pointed windows in all elevations and simple render treatment above the porch provide the only ornament. The triple lancet on the west gable is filled in with panelling and surmounted with a cement rendered blind arch pattern with horizontal stripes. The gable kneelers and apex are also surfaced in rendered cement. The walls are in red face brickwork with overpainted lower arches, sills and porch gable. Two large foundation stones flank the porch and provide a form of stone dressing. Elphinstone describes the building externally and internally as 'generally original' though its south side and roof were damaged by a fire in 1954. Early photographs show that this building has remained otherwise unchanged externally, and the metal ridge vents are long-standing.
Second Church, 1939-40
Face brick church of a moderately stylised late 1930s design, with a corner tower, angled brick buttresses and a lancet window grouping with brick mullions fronting a proportionally broad nave.Two vertical ribs run up the north (Riversdale Road) elevation, ending as finials on a fairly broad gable front. The tower has squared corner buttresses, a ribbed parapet and a tall open stair window facing Riversdale Road. An entry porch is to the immediate north-west at the Riversdale Road- Wills Street corner. A more recent lounge and entry area has been added to the east side, but kept back from the Church frontage with the connecting link partly concealed by the tower, so the Church reads clearly in its original form from the north and northwest sides, and its original east elevation also remains legible.
Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Camberwell Junction Heritage Study
Author: Lovell Chen
Year: 2012
Grading:
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FORMER ES&A BANKVictorian Heritage Register H0534
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CAMBERWELL COURT HOUSE AND POLICE STATIONVictorian Heritage Register H1194
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SECOND CHURCH OF CHRIST SCIENTISTVictorian Heritage Register H1196
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"1890"Yarra City
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"AMF Officers" ShedMoorabool Shire
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"AQUA PROFONDA" SIGN, FITZROY POOLVictorian Heritage Register H1687
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